MGT502 Business Communication | Social Media in the workplace

Answer:

According to Aguenza, Al-Kassem & Som, 2012, the rise in social media is changing the way through which the organisation operates and communicates. The rise in the use of new media is making the imperative for employees to embrace the medium at the workplace. The aim of the author is to examine the relevance of the social media technology with the productivity of the employees. In addition, the discussion related to the challenges and constraints of the social media use in the workplace is discussed. The method that assisted the author to conduct the research on the use of social media at the workplace is secondary sources which include a website, government paper and other. The findings of the research conducted by author reflect that the use of social media leads to the positive impact on the employee productivity, effective communication among the team members, two-way communications within the organisation. Though, there are some of the studies that show that social media leads to difficulties for the organisation to form the direct collaboration between the social media and productivity. This results in the suggestions by the author that there is a need for the general policies related to social media use for the purpose of the job. The limitation of the research conducted by the author shows that there is no description given related to different types of social media channels that are effectively used by organisations for communication.

The author has presented the paper with the motive to investigate the factors that can include the Facebook usage within the SMEs (Small and medium enterprise). Along with this, the impact of the use of social media on the financial and non-financial performance of SMEs is discussed within the paper. Author has made use of the integrated model as an approach of research which helps in understanding the factors that influence the use of popular social media channel and its impact on the performance of the company. The statistical analysis is done which was based on the data collection with the help of survey questionnaire from across 259 SMEs in Malaysia. The findings of the article include the Facebook usage has a strong positive impact on the non-financial performance of SMEs in the relevance of the cost reduction, customer service, effective relationship and many others. The limitation of the article includes the selection of samples as the sample only covered the one community of SME in Malaysia which ultimately contribute to limiting up the findings. Though, the author has made use of the various theories and practical implementation.

Baruah, 2012, presented that the world is revolving and there is a revolution in the use of social media as new social media channels are introduced which include Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Skype, MySpace and many others. These social media channels are mainly used by the companies with the purpose of communication. The author conducted the research on the basis of previous studies which shows that the author has followed the secondary method for the research. The author talked about the use of the social media for the sharing of knowledge and information among the different groups of employees. The findings of the article reflect that online sharing of the information increases the communication skills among the people. Moreover, the social media work as a tool that brings the fundamentals change in the character of social lives both on an interpersonal and a community level. The limitation of the article is that it doesn’t provide the clarity of the use of this tool with the real-life company.

According to Cardon & Marshall, 2015, the rise in the adaptation of the social networking platforms by the company is improving the team communication and collaboration. The author evaluated the views related to the use of social media within the organisation after conducting the survey. The survey method is considered one of the primary research methods that are used by the author for this article. The survey results from the 227 business professionals who presented three areas which include frequent use of social media for team communication, the effectiveness of these channels for communication, and the attitudes of the people towards the social networking for the communication among the team members. The author presents the way through which the business communication scholars can define, advance and set apart the field by emphasising business communication via enterprise social networking platforms. The limitation of the study includes that they don't include the implementation of various enterprise SNPs. Along with this, there is no detailed description related to the training of the employees which is required for the effective use of social networking. 

Delerue & Sicotte, 2017, presented the paper discussing the role of social media in effective communication at project terms. The author presented the anecdotal evidence on the essentials of the social media for the business projects with the growing interest of the practitioners in the benefits of the social media for their assigned projects. The author made use of the secondary research in which the importance is given to the previous studies which were conducted by the different authors on the basis of the primary research. The paper examines the effects of the social media use on communication by the employees at the workplace. The findings of the paper reflect that social media supports the motivation and the leadership styles. This shows that the use of social media in the organisation is one of the major advantages for them. The limitations of the article are that there is a lack of detailed analysis which reduces the discussion of major benefits to the organisation.

The authors have presented the article on the use of special media technologies by the employees at the workplace with the help of the review. Author has supported the research with the help of the thematic and methodological review. The article includes the systematic literature review methodology which is used by the author with the motive of conducting the research on employees who make use of social media technologies. The major themes that are discussed include legal aspect, human resource management, policies, sharing, learning, knowledge management and communication. These themes reflect that the use of the social media is increasing by the employees at the workplace which is supporting them to improve their performance. The findings of the article reflect that the rise in the performance of employees is effective for the company as the productivity will increase. The limitation of the article is that there is a lack of quantitative review on the topic of the employees who make use of social media at the workplace.

Hanna, Kee & Robertson, 2017, present that there is a rapid rise in the number of Facebook users in the workplace. The research reflects that there are many organisations who are taking the extreme measures which shows how the employees can make use of Facebook to connect with the colleagues at the workplace. Though, on the other hand, contradicting the same McAfee states that the use of social media in the workplace brings the positive dynamics. The study that has been conducted by the author in the article presents the positive connection that takes place between the colleagues who make use of Facebook to get connected with the co-workers. The author supported the research with the primary research method which includes the online survey which was conducted involving the question related to the Facebook use with co-workers. The findings of the article reflect that the job satisfaction is positively related with the use of Facebook within the organisation and among the co-workers. The author at the end stated that the companies should positively take the benefit of social media at the workplace. The limitation of the paper stated that the author didn’t discussabout the implementation of Facebook in real life company.

Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield, 2013 talked about the social media implementation at the workplace as the tools for communication among the team member. It is essential for the organisation to develop and understand the way to enable the activities of the communicative activities which helps the organisation in accomplishing the work effectively. Author has used the secondary research method for analysing the role of social media in the organisation for communication. This method has helped the author to understand the concept of the use of social media within the organisation for effective communication. The author has presented the different avenues through which the technologies have entered and continue to enter the workplace. The limitations of the article include the lack of information related to the benefits of social media use in the company. Along with this, the reactions and behaviour of the employees towards the use of social media is limited in the article.

According to the Treem, & Leonardi, 2013, there is an incredible rise in the use of the social media technologies which include blogs, wikis, social networking sites and many others. The author shared the opinion that the organisations are adopting the social media for communication which is improving the processes of organisations. The argues related to the social media are essential consequences to the organisational communication process because they afford behaviours that are tough to be achieved in combination before these new technologies entered the new workplace. The research conducted by the author with the help of the secondary method which includes the references to the journals, online website, encyclopaedias and other. According to the research of the author, this has been found that social media use in the organisation is affordable and enable the new technologies which include visibility, persistence, editability and association. The key findings of the journal include the fact that the social media is used by the organisation for communicating. The limitations of the article presented by the author include the implementation of the different social media channels within the organisation.

According to Zoonen, Verhoeven & Vliegenthart, 2017, Social media has gradually become ubiquitous in the workplace. The author highlighted that the use of social media within the organisation leads to both positive and negative consequences. The author made use of the primary research method for conducting the research on the social media use at the workplace. The survey has been taken as the primary method of the research in which survey of 421 employees is used to evaluate the relationship of the public social media use with the communication. The use of the JD-R model is used by the author for determining the positive and negative consequences of social media use of the public work. The limitation of the study is this that it depends on the cross-sectional data. The study doesn’t talk about the different social media channels that are available and are mainly used by the companies for communication.

Bibliography

Aguenza, B., Al-Kassem, A. H., & Som, A. M. (2012). Social media and productivity in the workplace: Challenges and constraints. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in Business, 2(2), 22-26.

Ainin, S., Parveen, F., Moghavvemi, S., Jaafar, N. I., & Mohd Shuib, N. L. (2015). Factors influencing the use of social media by SMEs and its performance outcomes. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 115(3), 570-588.

Baruah, T. D. (2012). The effectiveness of Social Media as a tool for communication and its potential for technology-enabled connections: A micro-level study. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2(5), 1-10.

Cardon, P. W., & Marshall, B. (2015). The hype and reality of social media use for work collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), 273-293.

Delerue, H., & Sicotte, H. (2017). Effective communication within project teams: the role of social media. International Journal of Conceptions on Management and Social Sciences, 5(1), 1-6.

El Ouirdi, A., El Ouirdi, M., Segers, J., & Henderickx, E. (2015). Employees' use of social media technologies: a methodological and thematic review. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34(5), 454-464.

Hanna B., Kee K., & Robertson, B. W. (2017). Positive impacts of social media at work: Job satisfaction, job calling, and Facebook use among co-workers. SHS Web of Conferences, 33. doi: 10.1051/shsconf/20173300012

Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.

Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2013). Social media use in organizations: Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International Communication Association, 36(1), 143-189.

Zoonen, W. V., Verhoeven, J. W., & Vliegenthart, R. (2017). Understanding the consequences of public social media use for work. European Management Journal, 35(5), 595-605.